My husband left me... taking the life-saving kidney he had promised me with him

A kidney transplant patient's life has been put on the line after the break-up of her marriage has left her without the donor she desperately needs.

When seriously ill Linda Joel's husband walked out on her and their four year marriage, he also took with him the kidney he had promised to give her in a life-saving operation.

Now, the diabetic mother-of-five is facing the daunting prospect of joining more than 7,000 people in desperate need of a new kidney on a national transplant list.

Broken promise: Linda Joel of Abingdon with her granddaughter Summer Weresch, 11. She has been told she must lose weight and then go on dialysis after her estranged husband changed his mind about donating his kidney

Mrs Joel's estranged husband, Gary, walked out three weeks ago leaving a short note, which wished her luck and informed her he was not coming back.

'I am unsure of the future now,' said the devastated 57-year-old from her home in Abingdon, Oxon.

'He has put my life in dire straits. He has taken a lifeline away from me and now I have to find another one.

'He left knowing that I was relying on him. It would not have meant so much if he did not know how important it was for him to do this.'

When Mrs Joel received the horrific diagnosis that she would need a new kidney her children initially stepped forward to be tested as possible matches.

However, Gary, aged 46 years, gallantly stepped forward and offered his organ to his sick wife.

At the time the decorator said: 'I just said it's my responsibility and I have to get on with it. All the kids are young with children.

'I was bowled over when they volunteered, they came up trumps. The doctors said Linda would be on a waiting list otherwise and we all knew there wouldn't need to be a waiting list if we stepped up.'

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Mrs Joel was due to have the operation last year but was too ill and was waiting for her health to improve so that she could go under the surgeon's knife.

Mr Joel was in the same blood group as his wife, which meant the chance his kidney would be compatible was 70 per cent.

The grandmother-of-15 has only one working kidney and visits hospital up to twice a week.

'Hardly anybody can believe what he has done,' she said.

'Everybody is so shocked. I am glad my kids are around me as I would never have come through this otherwise.'

The couple had been together for nine years after meeting in a pub in Maidenhead. They married on October 7, 2006, in St Michael and All Angels' Church in Abingdon.

Gary sent Linda a note to explain why he left.

He wrote: 'Linda, you and I have not been okay for a long time. I have felt the walls closing on me.

'I wish you and your family all the luck in the world but I'm not coming back.'

Mrs Joel's daughter, Hayley Smith, aged 34 years, said: 'Obviously she is devastated he has gone as he was her backbone, but her health was banking on him.

'Now we have to go through all the rigor of finding another match. And the chances are slim at the moment.'

Mr Joel was asked to comment, but he declined to respond.

Mrs Joel has been told that her health needs to improve and she needs to lose weight before she can begin the six months of dialysis before the donor process can re-start.

Then she is likely to have to go on a transplant waiting list.

In Oxfordshire, between 2006-08, 14 per cent of kidney transplant patients got a kidney within six months, 23 per cent within a year, and 39 per cent within two years.The remainder wait more than two years.